Prime Minister Andrew Holness has lauded the work of Factories Corporation of Jamaica Limited for the growth it has achieved over the past four years.
The Prime Minister in reflecting on the 2016 Auditor General’s Report, which painted a damning picture of the operation of FCJ and highlighted that the organisation was operating at a loss, explained that he assembling of a new board, chaired by Lyttleton ‘Tanny’ Shirley, which has now led to the company returning to good governance and making surpluses.
“The company is in a good financial position and the appropriate thing for them to do is, yes, they must maintain a prudential balance in the bank but it is also their mandate to spur investment and so they are now investing in expanding warehousing capacity. This is not just capacity to support large industries or the logistics sector, it is also capacity to support the small medium-sized and micro business people who want space at reasonable cost to operate,” said Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
It is through this increased profitability that FCJ for the first time in over a decade is able to expand its warehousing capacity, with the redevelopment and expansion of the organisation’s largest commercial complex, the Garmex Freezone, which has consistently seen a demand for space.
“This location, which was built in the 70s, expanded in the 80s we haven’t seen much new happenings other than the rehabilitation. There was a period of time when this place was not fully occupied, now the Garmex Freezone is fully occupied and people want more space. It is a sign that there is fundamental demand in the economy,” explained Mr Holness.
Factories Corporation now has five major projects to be undertaken, which equate to over 1.5 million square feet of space to be constructed. In June 2019, FCJ broke grounds for the Morant Bay Urban Centre. Construction in that development is expected to begin next month (June 2020).
